Cowboy from the Future (29 page)

“
You
set the lizards loose.”  She gestured towards the pandemonium outside. 
“This is
your
fault!”

“Well,
how else could I get you away from the Voltyn?”

“You
crazy son of a bitch!  If anything happens to Cade, I’ll turn you inside out!”

“That
bastard will be fine.  I’m not lucky enough for him to die.”  Quel smirked.  “Not
that you’ll be seeing him, again. 
Ever
.  You and I are headed back to
the glorious past, human.”

“I’m
not going
any
where with…”

She
didn’t get to finish that denial.  He slammed his fist into her jaw and Addy
hit the ground, stars dancing in her vision.  Quel grabbed her under her arms,
dragging her towards the back door.  There was no one else in the shell of the
church, so nobody saw him hauling her away.  She was being kidnapped in broad
daylight, but it would be like she just vanished.

The
last thing thought through Addy’s head, before the world went dark, was that
Cade would have no idea where she went…

Careful
planning could mean the difference between a dream vacation and a nightmare.

Prioritize
what you really want to accomplish this trip, so you don’t miss any of your
favorite sights and activities.

Only you
know what will make you happiest.

Brown’s
Glampling Tours Official Pocket Guide

“She
wouldn’t just leave.”  Cade shook his head, desperation burning at his gut.  “She
wouldn’t go without even a word.  Something must have happened.”

The
possibilities of what that “something” could be circled around his head like
vultures.  He
had
to get her back.  It didn’t matter what it took, he
was getting her
back
.  Without Adeline, Cade’s life was an empty pit.  Where
was
she?  Not knowing what else to do, he started on another pointless
search.  They’d already looked in all the buildings twice and found nothing.  The
Westins had been looking for Adeline for hours with no success.

She
was
gone
.

“She
wasn’t caught in the stampede.”  Jake reminded him, following along for another
sweep of the polis.  “She didn’t take any of the horses.  She wasn’t arrested. 
Maybe Addy left on her on.  She
was
pretty pissed at you, Cade.”

He
didn’t want to recall that their last words had been shouted at each other.  It
just made him even crazier.  Cade shook his head, still refusing to believe
she’d leave him.  “Addy loves me.”  He hadn’t realized how deeply he believed that
until she went missing.  Adeline couldn’t shut off her feelings, no matter how
angry she was.  The woman loved with her whole heart.  He
felt
it.

“I
know she does,” Jake agreed, “but maybe she just needed some time to cool down. 
You can be pissed at someone and still love them.  Maybe she went for a walk or
something.”

“She
wouldn’t go for a fucking walk until she was sure I wasn’t killed by the
sanbors.  Addy would’ve checked on me, and you, and Deke and
then
gone
back to being pissed.”

Jake
could dispute that logic, but he clearly wanted to.  “Maybe she intended to
come right back, but she got lost or something.”  He suggested, grasping at
straws.  The thought of Addy being in actual danger had him pale and
terrified.  “The girl doesn’t have a great sense of direction.  Maybe we’re
overreacting.”

“I
think some lonely asshole stole her.”  Deke muttered, scanning around for
likely suspects.  Blue eyes narrowed at some random bystander.  “We should
start questioning every pervert we see.”

“In
Big Rock, that’ll take all day.”  Jake paused to peer behind a scraggly bush,
in case Addy was hiding under the sparse branches.  “What if she wandered outside
of the polis and she’s trapped in the snow?  She’ll freeze to death, while we
waste time.”

Cade
tuned out their bickering.  He couldn’t think about someone harming Adeline or
picture her perishing in a snowbank.  It would drive him mad.  Voltyn instincts
were going wild.  He couldn’t focus on anything except
finding
her.

He
ran both hands through his hair and squeezed his eyes shut.  “Tell me where you
are.”  He whispered.  “I’ll come for you, Addy.  Just tell me where you are.”  It
was like the woman had disappeared into the ether.

Or
been swept back to her own time.

The
thought kept running around Cade’s mind, no matter how hard he tried to ignore
it.  What if she’d been transported into the past?  How could he possibly get
to her, if he wasn’t even sure
when
she was?  He’d thought protecting
her was all that mattered, and that was a big fucking part of it, but his
feelings went even deeper than that.  Human emotions mixed with Voltyn
instincts and now he knew that he’d been thinking far too narrowly.

Addy
was
all that mattered.

The
woman herself was cornerstone of his life.  The love he felt for her was
everything bright and real in the world.  Cade would wither away without the sunlight
she brought to him.  He couldn’t be trapped here, hundreds of years away from
her.  He wouldn’t survive.  He wouldn’t
want
to.  He had to find a way
to reach her and…

Something
suddenly caught Cade’s eye.  The abandoned church was directly in front of him,
the fading sunlight reflecting through one of the broken windows.  For just a
heartbeat, he saw
something
on the decrepit floor shine… purple?  Yeah. 
Something shined
purple
.

He
strode forward, his head tilting when he got close enough to recognize the distinctive
color.  The nail paint he’d bought Addy now festooned the rotten boards.  No
one else in this dismal place would own something so bright.  Cade crouched down,
his gaze scanning the dirty ground.  Someone had broken the bottle, spilling
the expensive varnish.  While it was still wet, their boots had stepped in it,
tracking blotchy footprints out the back.

Footprints
which were interspersed with ominous trails of paint.

Cade’s
jaw ticked.  A smaller person had been dragged out behind the man in the boots,
leaving long purple lines with the heels of her shoes.  A woman who wasn’t
walking on her own, at the mercy of someone bigger and stronger.

Adeline.

“I
told you the girl got snatched.”  Deke whispered, coming up behind him and scanning
the area.  “Addy wouldn’t have left willing.  Not before she kicked your ass.”

Cade
slowly got to his feet, his heart hammering.  “Alright.”  He said in a faraway voice
and looked over at his brothers.  “Let’s go get her back.”

“How?” 
Jacobi’s aura was filled with fissures of frantic yellow.  He bent down to pick
up the broken pieces of Addy’s boxy, white “eye-phone.”  Whatever the device
once saw, it was now blinded forever.  “How are we gonna find out who did this? 
We have to get her back, Cade!  We need some kind of plan.”

“I
have a plan.”  Rage and panic ate through Cade like the acrid bite of a
green-ringed serrapand.  “I’m going to kill every single person in this polis
--one by one-- until she’s returned to me.”

“Now
that’s
a godsdamn plan.”  Deke pulled out his laz-gun and headed for the
back door.  “I’ll see if they left us a trail to follow.  We’ll start with slaughtering
whoever’s at the end of it.”

Cade
barely heard him.  All the emotions that Voltyn could indeed feel overwhelmed
him.  His attention kept returning to the spilled nail paint, the sight of it
shaking loose his momentary, eye-of-the-storm calm.  His whole body began to
shake.  It was small and feminine and fragile...

…And
some evil son of a bitch had smashed it.

Cade
gave a bellow of pure fury.  His powers slammed out, rocking the entire room. 
Electricity blasted into the walls of the church, scorching a menacing pattern
of lightning bolts into the wood.  Somebody had taken Addy --had hurt Addy-- and
that somebody was going to die, along with
everyone they fucking knew
.

Jacobi
ducked as chucks of timber rained down.  “Shit, Cade!  That’s not going to
help!”

Maybe
not, but he was beyond stopping it.  For the first time in his life, he felt
every bit of his Voltyn powers… and he was actually in control of them.  They filled
him from the inside out, lighting every gant of his skin.  His vision wavered,
much like it had when he made love to Addy.  He could still see the church, but
he could also see so much…
more
.

Prismatic
colors floated passed, the residue left behind by all people who’d been there. 
Old and young.  Human and Voltyn.  Holy and sinful.  Cade could see the misty
remains of so many auras.  Like fingerprints, it was all left behind.  Every
conceivable shade danced around him, some faded with age and some still fresh.

And
right in the middle of all of it, glowing with a magic all its own, was Addy’s
sparkling aura.  No one else had that unique color of gold.  He could see
exactly where she’d been, using the glittering stamp she’d left of the air.

Cade
gasped in wonder.  The destructive force of his energy eased back, but it took
surprisingly little focus to keep the auras in view.  The Voltyn powers were a
natural part of him, just as Addy always said.  The heritage he’d always been
ashamed of was going to save his woman.

“What
do you see?”  Deke asked, watching him closely.  “Do you know who took her?”

“Yes.” 
Quel’s distinctive gray aura was encroaching on Addy’s, leaving no doubt who
the abductor was.  “Outlanders.  They took her to Wilderness.  I know it.”

Deke
began cursing in both languages.  His aura swirled with fear and rage, as he looked
down at his missing hand.  “Four gods, Cade…”  He trailed off, passing his
remaining palm over his face and trying to stay calm.  “I can’t go back out
there, again.  I just can’t do it.  Don’t ask me.”

Cade
knew better than anyone what the Wilderness War had been like for him.  Deke
was finally becoming himself again, so he hated the thought of his brother
being thrown back into his worst nightmares.  There wasn’t another choice,
though.  “It’s
Addy
, Deke.  Do I have to ask?”

Deke
exhaled a long breath, his eyes closing.  They all knew the answer.  “No, you
don’t.”  He finally said.  “No one
ever
has to ask me help my family. 
The Wilderness already took too much from me.  I won’t let it take Adeline.”

“Are
you sure?”  Cade asked.  “I can do this on my own if I have to.”

“I
love that girl like she’s my little sister.  I’m going with you.”  He met
Cade’s eyes.  “We’ll get Addy back, if I have to walk into hell itself.”

“Me
too.”  Jacobi volunteered.

Cade
and Deke both frowned at him, neither of them liking the idea of the boy anywhere
near the Outlanders.

“I’m
going
.”  Jake insisted, seeing their hesitation.  “Addy’s my family,
too.”  He looked over at Cade, his face serious.  “I won’t screw it up.  I
swear.”

The
kid wasn’t going to back down.  “Alright.”  Cade said quietly.

“Good.” 
Deke stalked out the door.  “We’ll all go die together.  I’ll get the horses.”

Cade
shook his head.  He did want to risk his brothers, but he really did need their
help.  Besides, he doubted he could stop them, even if he wanted to.  Addy was
the most important part of their world.  The heart they’d been missing.

The
Westins would give everything for her.

“Addy’s
too valuable for the Outlanders to harm, right?”  Jacobi needed to be reassured
that they’d see her again.  “They’ll want to sell her or something, so they
won’t eat her.  We’ll just go kill them all and we’ll get her back.  We can
track them, can’t we?”

Doubtful. 
Cade had a bead on Addy’s sparkling aura, but he wasn’t sure how far he could
follow it once they left the church.  Knowing the Outlanders, they’d be riding
hard and using routes that only they knew.  It would be easy to lose the trail.

Luckily,
he didn’t need to follow their exact path to find them.  “I know where Quel’s
taking her.”  He said quietly.

Cade
remembered the white knuckle grip the Outlander had had on that book.  His
crazed desire to see Addy’s world.  There was only one place that son of a
bitch wanted to be and it was the last spot Cade wanted Addy to go.  The spot where
she could be transported back to the past, forever beyond his reach.

Yellowstone.

***

This
was all Cade’s fault.

All
of it.

If
he hadn’t been such an asshole, Addy wouldn’t have been so angry at him.  If
she hadn’t been angry at him, she wouldn’t have been on the opposite side of
the street during the stampede.  If she hadn’t been on the opposite side of the
street, Quel wouldn’t have grabbed her at the church.  If Quel hadn’t grabbed
her, she wouldn’t be riding to Yellowstone, and fighting morning sickness.

Oh
and the morning sickness? 
Also
Cade’s fault.

Addy
stared into the Outlanders’ campfire, adding to the growing list of reasons why
Cade was an asshole.  In fact, spending several weeks on the back of a horse
was giving her plenty of time to blame him for everything that had ever
happened to her.  She knew Cade was still alive.  She could feel it more and
more each day.  That relieved certainty gave her carte blanche to find him
guilty of ruining her whole life.

Who
was responsible for Addy being the chubbiest kid in the sixth grade?  Cade. 
Who was responsible for her stupid, least-favorite bra cutting into her
shoulders?  Cade.  Who was responsible for her being pregnant, and grouchy, and
kidnapped by Outlanders,
again?
  Cade, Cade, a thousand times
Cade
.

Christ,
she missed him.

On
the plus side, Quel and his band of a dozen, two-eyed followers were actually
treating her fairly well, all things considered.  No one had tried to kill her,
rape her, or eat her.  They gave Addy her own tent, and a cotton candy pink mount
to ride as they headed towards Yellowstone.  Feeling maudlin about her final
dance with Cade, she’d named the horse Cyndi Lauper, before she’d realized he
was actually a male.